As people become familiar with purchasing goods/services through the internet (especially when traveling are restricted due to the covid19), the number of conflict arising from online transactions has increased significantly. Therefore, the Court of Justice Committee aims to deal with these issues by setting up the Online Sale and Purchase Department (“OSPD”) in the civil courts across the country to deal with the Online Sale and Purchase Cases (“OSPD Case”) which will start accepting the OSPD case from 27 January 2022 onward.

Person receiving a package delivery
The litigation processes of OSPD Case are significantly less formal than the traditional litigation processes as all of it can be performed electronically via internet.

The case procedurals of the OSPD Case are specified in the Court of Justice Announcement dated 7 January 2022 which we summarized it here:

• All trials processes must be performed electronically;
• Filing of complaint, defense statement, and other documents to the court must be filed through the e-Filing system of the court (the parties can file the document any day and time);
• The parties can receive result of the court’s order from document filing through the court’s system within 12 hours since the submission;
• The plaintiff does not have to specify full details of the defendant (full name and address). Only name that the defendant uses in a specific platform/system (Profile Name) is sufficient as the court official will obtain details of the defendant through a relevant organization(s) to accommodate the plaintiff; and
• The parties and witnesses are not required to attend the court for an appointment as the communication will be performed via the VDO conference.

This is a significant move for the justice system in Thailand as normally Thai Courts are very conservative and too careful of their paperwork while the OSPD Case would, theoretically, generate zero paper. We are very surprised to see that the court official will seek the identity of the defendant (as mentioned in item 4 above) because it is very unlikely to see the court is involving in fact-finding for parties of the case. From this approach, it is demonstrated that the justice system is trying to provide protection for customers who normally have less bargaining power than the business operators.

The business operator who sells products/services through the internet should ensure that its products/services (including advertisement) meet legal requirements to avoid possible legal challenges from customers because, from this new law, filing of OSPD Case can be very practical. It is also advisable for the business operator to learn information about the OSPD Case and set up protocols to respond when the customers filed the OSPD Case against the company.